PERSONAL STATEMENT BY SENATOR MORSE-- SOUTH VIETNAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP66B00403R000200140063-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 2, 2005
• Sequence Number: 63
• Publication Date: April 2, 1964
• Content Type: OPEN

1 I t Approved For Re I 00 F 2 0140063-4
sus
because of the fact that tomorrow, and lege in the Senate, they will understand the President of the United States is on
for weeks thereafter, the senator will why I am basing my statement on a mat- that charge, because the President of
have ample opportunity to make his ter of personal privilege because of future the United States is Commander in Chief
speech. We were hopeful that tomor- reference. of e For row a Couple of speeches which have Mr. President, the tinhorn soldier well as rPres dent s If want oto ntryknow
been prepared would be made. tyrant whom the Government of the whether or not the Commander in Chief
'Mr. ROBERTSON. Let me clear up United States is supporting in an un- of the Armed Forces of this country pro-
the Parliamentary situation. I men- justifiable war in South Vietnam has poses to continue to give military support
tioned the fact that I had the floor. I publicly called the senior Senator from to this kind of tinhorn soldier tyrant in
was about to speak on title VI. I do not Oregon a traitor.
want any Senator to say, "You have al-
I ask unanimous consent that South Freedom ready spoken on title VI and you cannot the story Freedom in South Vietnam? The
appearing in the New York News, en- statement of this tyrant in South Viet-
speak on it any more." titled "Khan
, h Labels Morse Traitor to nam shows the kind of political system
Mr. CLARK, Mr. President, under U.S. People," written by staff correspond- that exists in South Vietnam. It is per-
the circumstances, I shall not object. ent of the News Mr. Joseph Fried, be fectly obvious that if in South Vietnam
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without published in the RECORD at this point in an official of the people stood up and
objection, it is so ordered, my remarks. that government, the tyrant
Mr. MORSE. Mr. President, I should There being no objection, the article South Vietnam would liquidate him. in
like to have the attention of the Sena- was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, That is the conception of freedom held
tor from Pennsylvania [Mr. CLARK]. I as follows:
always find him very persuasive. I was the this tyrant whom the Government of.
not aware of, the information the Sena- KHANH LABELS MORSE TRAITOR TO us. PEOPLE the United States is supporting at the
tor from Pennsylvania gave concerning (By Joseph Fried) rate of a million and a half dollars a
for gren she leadership co this big SAIGON, VIETNAM, March 28.-Strongman day, and at great loss of American blood.
and arra ograd the ders the on this procedure Premier Maj. Gen. Nguyen Khanh today The continuation of the support of this
in to called senator WAyNE MORSE, Democrat, of tyrant with American money and Amer-
for,today. If I had known of it, I would Oregon, a traitor to his people for advocating ican blood cannot be justified by the
not have said I was going to call for a live withdrawal of U.S. advisers from Vietnam. President of the United States. Under W or not ca 1 fortaoleVccircumstances, I Khanh was questioned
miles northeast of coastal city I shall call upon the American people ill I respectfully suggest to quorum
of Nha . But the Senator Trang, to respond to this kind of support
MORSE'S recent statement on the Sen- pport of a
from Pennsylvania, and through him to ate floor that "all of South Vietnam isn't military dictator and tyrant, who is in-
the floor leaders of the bill, that when- worth the life of a single American boy." Vieth on one side of a civil war in South
ever it is possible, there should be the DOESN'T KNOW SENATOR'S NAME Vietnam.
broadest possible cloakroom discussions Khanh replied: "I do not know the name I repeat what I have said before, and
of plans. We are likely, in the not too of this Senator. However, if I were an I shall continue to repeat it. I discussed
distant future, to find ourselves to a American, I can say this Senator would not it at length at the University of Kansas
be good for the American fighting men right last night, and I shall discuss it on plat-
position in which each Senator may have here."
to exercise his own right for his protec- MORSE, he went on, is "a traitor of the the them after monthsah aheead ad b se, cmntry in rm in y tion, regardless of ,any understanding American people" for taking such a view. roans okay is in
he judgcross-
some group in the Senate may have He said he understood Red Chinese advisers , and the policy the will have
reached. were with Communist guerrilla cadres. roads, and tu judgment t people whettheher the
have
By announcing that I shall not ask Khanh also spoke of
Vietnamese- Cam-bodian relations after attending the gradu- largess and blood of the United States
want Senatuor m think I am setting a ation of a class of air cadets at Nha Trang. Will continue to be used to prosecute the
precedent toguide them in the setting . SET TO WELCOME CAMBODIANS McNamara war to strengthen tyranny in
future
I shall not ask for a live quorum m
erely He said he was ready to welcome a Cam- various parts of the world.
because the leadership may have entered bodian delegation for talks on Vietnamese- I am just as opposed to the type of
into se the lea tershi ; may have I was Cambodian differences, but expressed hopes Fascist military tyranny that this tin-
g the two countries could settle their dispute horn soldier in South Vietnam symbol-
not aware, that there would not be a live without outside help, as am to quorum. Plans for early Cambodian-Vietnamese inns , I because opposed are Communist this
-
quorum. CLARK, Mr. President, will the border talks fell through after the Viet- for army, teal are under human pie of
.Senator yield? namese bombed and strafed a Cambodian the individual end result either type
Mr. MORSE, I yield. village last week, killing some 16 villagers, tyranny; and the end result is the same.
same.
e.
Mr. CLARK. I point agree with The News learned that the United States I also want to know from this admin-
thMr or. point out only that with has begun supplying two-speater A-iH fighter istration how many men we have in slower T-28 American uniform South Vietnam.
the Senator was out of the city on im- tra ners.. Ai shipment of A-lH's, formerly The figure 15,000 Ori15, 00 continues to
portant_business, arrangements had to known as the AD-6, arrived here this week be used, but I have been advised that
be made before he returned. We did not by ship. Other shipments will reportedly there are already 18,000 American boys
not have an opportunity to call his at- follow.
tention-although we did inform a mem- that come. out east, Pentagon; is the word
bar of his staff'-to the situation which Mr. MORSE. Mr. President, that that comes ouof the Pentagon; and
had occurred on the floor. I am grateful statement was made long enough ago for some of the press correspondents who
for Occurre has done. I thank him for the White House to have had an ade- sit above the clock in the front of the
fir understanding. quate opportunity to reply to it. I want Chamber have so advised me again today.
,
Mr. erstand It was perfectly proper to know whether the President of the Day before yesterday I asked the chair-
to make tarrange- United States proposes to continue to man of the Senate Armed Services Com-questions fo,
ments. I _ was called, those
the Senator give support to this tinhorn soldier mittee two
knows, at the of Kansas and tyrant in South Vietnam-a straight which we have the rightrto ask of informationany.
asked if I could return to make a major dictator. I want to know whether the committee, to find out whether or not
President of the United Stat
civil rights speech at 4 o'
l
c
es proposes there are any plans by McNamara to
ock. I said to continue to allow the killing of Amer- Iwould, and I did. Prosecute the McNamara war in South
lean boys in support of this tyrant, in Vietnam by sending marines,
guerrilla
view of the fact that the tyrant publicly trained. That is a rumor out of the Pen-
PERSONAL TOR MORSE STATEMENT
announced that an elected representative tagon also. We do not have the answer
,VIETNAM in the Senate of the United States of
the free people of the State of Oregon is Yet. ha elals asked the chairm ns of the
Mr. MORSE. Mr. President, let me an alleged traitor. Senate Armed talk a little about South Vietnam. I shall I want to know what the position of notify the Pentagon-and and I knowthe has
base these remarks on a matter of per-' my Government is on that charge; and done so-to keep us informed day by day
sonal privilege, because if Senators will I want to know it quickly.
look into the meaning Of personal privi- I want to know what the
position of as
boys s in S Soutout tne h Vietnam, American
No. 61-6
etnaamm, , including not
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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD - SENATE April 2
only those unnecessarily slaughtered by
this unjustifiable McNamara war, but
also those who have been wounded.
I with to make clear to the Senate that
I shall look to it, on the basis of a resolu-
tion which will be introduced in the near
future, to take Its stand In regard to
McNamara's war In South Vietnam.
Senators' constituents are entitled to
know where they stand. I have listened
to the thunders of silence of the over-
whelming majority of the Senate in re-
gard to McNamara's war in South Viet-
nam. The time has come for the Ameri-
can people to know where their elected
representatives in the Congress stand.
If Senators are for It, let them rise and
say so. if Senators are against It, give
those of us who have been willing to lead
out on the shocking program of the
Johnson administration in respect to
McNamara's war in South Vietnam some
help to bring to an end this unjustifiable
war in South Vietnam.
This is a war between the South Viet-
namese. We have not been able to get
a witness from the administration before
the Foreign Relations Committee who
can produce a scintilla of evidence that
there are any foreign soldiers In South
Vietnam other than U.S. soldiers. If U.S.
soldiers were out of there, the evidence
seems to be crystal clear that the war
would be fought between the South Viet-
namese, because whole families are split
In civil war.
I yield to no man or woman In the Sen-
ate in my opposition to Communist to-
talitarianism, but I should like to see
a little more evidence in the Senate that
there is like opposition to Fascist totali-
tarianism or to military totalitarianism.
We prate about supporting freedom
In the world. We are not supporting
freedom in South Vietnam with Ameri-
can blood; we are supporting totalitar-
lanism in South Vietnam with American
blood. That is why we are losing pres-
tige, standing, and face all over the
world.
All around the world, hundreds of mil-
lions of people know that the United
States talks a good game of freedom, but
that Its foreign policy, in too many par-
ticulars, does not practice it.
In a few days, there will be a meeting
of SEATO In Manila, at long last-a good
thing. I hope some good results will
flow from it, because we are in South
Vietnam as a result of the SEATO
Treaty. That Is the weak reed upon
which we lean. In the SEATO Treaty,
the United States and the other signa-
tories thereto entered Into what is known
In foreign relations as a protocol agree-
ment. This protocol agreement provides
that the signatories to the treaty con-
sider the South Vietnamese area an area
of mutual concern and mutual interest.
A regional agreement, designed to pro-
tect and promote the peace of an area,
falls within the framework of the ob-
jectives of the United Nations; that Is,
such regional agreements are authorized.
But, if we enter into such a regional pact,
we should carry out its purpose. That
is not being done under SEATO. So,
if the original pact does not carry out
the purpose of preserving the peace, the
signatories to the United Nations have
a duty to step in.
I am sorry that the United States has
not exercised the lead in calling for
an extraordinary meeting of the for-
eign ministers of the SEATO pact, to
see what could be done to settle that
conflict over there by the application
of the rule of law, instead of by the appli-
cation of American military force.
We are a great country to talk about
how we stand for the application of the
rule of law. When are we to start prac-
ticing it? We almost have to be dragged
Into every incident where the opportunity
exists to practice our professions about
standing for the rule of law. We tried
to evade the issue in the Cyprus issue.
The United States, along with Great
Britain, tried to have the Cyprus issue
handled by NATO. How? By the use
of military intervention. Cyprus is not
even a member of NATO: neither is
South Vietnam, our puppet state. We
brought It Into being in 1954. Inasmuch
as we brought It Into being. we say we are
In there because the Government asked
us to come in.
What do we say about Russian mili-
tary forces being in the countries of
Eastern Europe? We say that they are
Russian puppets. Russia has always ex-
cused its shocking and unconscionable
course of action in Hungary. and else-
where in Eastern Europe on the ground
that it Is In there because those govern-
ments want It there. That is as much
nonsense as the excuse the United States
gives for being in South Vietnam. The
reasons given are phony. They are in-
tellectually dishonest reasons. We
should not be a party to such a course of
action.
If the SEATO members do not wish
to work out a program for bringing peace
in South Vietnam short of killing peo-
ple, we should take the case to the United
Nations. The great danger is that the
brush fire will be whipped into a prairie
fire, and that there will be an Interna-
tional holocaust.
Unpopular as my position may be in
some quarters within the administration
and elsewhere, I shall continue to do
what I can to keep faith with my basic
tenet in the field of foreign policy, name-
ly, my deep conviction that there is no
hope for permanent peace, unless we are
willing to substitute for the jungle law
of military force the law of reason en-
compassed In the rule of law under In-
ternational law.
Every time the opportunity comes to
resort to the rule of reason as a sub-
stitute for the jungle law of force, we
should do so. South Vietnam gives us
our present opportunity.
As I have previously stated. I never
criticize a foreign policy, or any other
policy of my Government, without of-
fering what I consider to be a construc-
tive proposal or plan to take Its place.
Thus, for the past several weeks, I have
been saying that we should try to use the
peaceful procedures available to us
through SEATO, to arrive at a peaceful
accommodation for the ending of hos-
tilities in South Vietnam. For want of
a better descriptive term. I should like
to see the foreign ministers representing
the governments signatory to the SEATO
Treaty try to arrange a form of SEATO
trusteeship on South Vietnam.
We are putting ourselves in a rather
weak position if we take the view that
we ought to support the present gang
that controls South Vietnam for their
policies are policies of totalitarianism,
policies of tyranny, policies of the police
state.
I do not like to see my country asso-
ciated with the support of that kind of
policy. That is what McNamara is sup-
porting in his war in South Vietnam.
If what I propose cannot be done-
and I am not sure that it cannot be, be-
cause we do not know until we try, al-
though the President of the Philippines
does not offer me much encouragement
or hope-we should go to the United
Nations.
I pointed out that the President of the
Philippines announced in Manila a few
days ago that the United States should
remain in South Vietnam, and urged
that the United States continue using
military might in South Vietnam. I had
asked the President of the Philippines,
"Where are the Philippine soldiers in
South Vietnam?" I asked to what ex-
tent the Philippines were making any
contribution to the cost of the operation
in South Vietnam.
The President of the Philippines took
umbrage. I did not expect him to send
me flowers. He did not answer me on
the facts, however. He talked about
how the Philippines would be glad to
send In troops in a joint SEATO action.
He used the old diversionary technique
of telling about past relationships and
the support that the Philippines had
given to the United States. We are duly
appreciative of that. The Philippine
record is glorious. However, that has
nothing to do with the failure of the
Philippines to propose a joint SEATO
action, or a SEATO settlement, or to
undertake unilateral action of the kind
it recommends for the United States.
Because a country has performed well
in regard to other obligations does not
excuse it from performing well with re-
spect to the instant obligation.
So I say, In reply to the suggestion of
the President of the Philippines that we
should Intensify the war in South Viet-
nam, that he is missing a great oppor-
tunity. He apparently thinks the way
to settle the South Vietnam issue is to
settle it with bullets and not with reason.
The President of the United States, in
a great speech downtown a few days ago,
used one of his favorite Biblical quota-
tions about sitting down and reasoning
together. I agree with him. That is
what we ought to do. I agree that this
great teaching of the President ought to
apply to South Vietnam.
The President of the United States
ought to take the lead in trying to get
the SEATO nations to apply the rule of
law for the settlement of the holocaust
in South Vietnam along any line that
falls within the framework of the appli-
cation of procedures of international law
to the peaceful settlement of disputes
which threaten the peace of an area and
thereby threaten the peace of the world.
If It cannot be done through SEATO, we
must try to do it through the United
Nations. We must let the United Na-
tions try Its hand at ending the hostili-
ties in South Vietnam and stopping the
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killing of people. After all, no blood-
letting will ever settle an issue. In the
long run it can only entrench for the fu-
ture intense hatred, when a vanquished
party in a military program today will
rise again, 10, 20, or 30 years from now.
That is the history of so-called military
victories.
Military victories seldom produce
permanent peace. Military victories only
entrench hatred. Sooner or later, like
a volcano, that human hatred erupts. A
military solution by the United States in
South, Vietnam can never bring about
permanent peace, even though it would
seem, after more sacrifice of life and
the expenditure of more millions of dol-
lars, to provide but a temporary victory.
We ought to take the lead, if SEATO
fails, in the United Nations, to try to
arrive at a program under which a Unit-
ed Nations trusteeship could be estab-
lished,
This gives De Gaulle an opportunity to
deliver. It gives him an opportunity to
deliver, in SEATO, also. Let us not for-
get who signed the SEATO Treaty:
France, Great Britain, Australia, New
Zealand, Pakistan, Thailand, the Philip-
pines, and the United States. Only the
United States is in there. The only for-
eign soldiers in there are U.S. soldiers.
The only foreign soldiers who are dying
there are U.S. soldiers.
. Do not Members of the Senate con-
sider it strange ' that all of our alleged
allies in the SEATO Treaty, who took
the position in 1954 that this is an area
of mutual concern and mutual interest,
are doing nothing about it except egging
the United states on-as the President
of. the Philippines is doing-to spend
more blood and ,more money to bring to
an end the bloodletting in the civil war
in South Vietnam?
We ought to find out their reasons.
We should' know why that is so. I sug-
gested in a speech on the floor of the
Senate on the day-before yesterday that
perhaps they recognize that the white
man is never going to be able to prevail
in Asia, that the day of the white man in
Asia is over.
Great Britain discovered it. France
discovered. it after killing thousands of
the flower of its manhood in Indochina.,
even though, interestingly' enough, we
made available to France about a billion
and a half dollars to help France con-
duct the war in Indochina. France was
whipped. France was driven out. The
people of France brought down a gov-
ernment in protest against the slaughter
of the flower of French manhood in
Indochina.
I would have 'my administration take
note of the fact that that is an interest-
ing pattern in the history of the world;
when the mass of the people finally come
to understand that a military course of
action is resulting in the unjustifiable
killing of their, boys, they hold to an
accountability the government that is
responsible for the killing.
Mr. President, I have been in enough
places in the United States in recent
months, and I have heard from enough
people in khe United States in recent
regard to the Vietnam, to
months in McNamara war in South Vietnam, to
satisfy me that there is rising a tide of
resentment among the American peo-
ple in respect to the unilateral action
of the United States in conducting Mc-
Namara's war in South Vietnam. A
great many people seem to be concerned
about face saving and prestige. What
a great opportunity the United States
has to strengthen its prestige around
the world, to storm the heights of world
public opinion and approval, by saying,
"We feel that what should be done is for
the countries that have signed pacts
seeking to bring an end to the threat
to the peace in various parts of the world
to join in trying to arrive at a peaceful
accommodation of the war in South
Vietnam." That is my plea. I am not
talking about myths. I am talking about
a blueprint proposal for bringing to an
end what I consider a mistaken Amer-
ican policy.
I sincerely hope that my administra-
tion will reappraise, and quickly,
McNamara's war in South Vietnam. I
shall await the position of the President
in regard to the statement of this tin-
horn soldier, tyrant, dictator in South
Vietnam charging a Member of the
U.S. Senate with being a traitor.
I want to know what the President's
position is in regard to that conduct on
the part of this tyrant in Souh Vietnam.
I am going to give the Senate an op-
portunity to decide what their position
is on it, too.
If we have reached the point now
where we have gone so far down the
road toward the support of totalitarian-
ism in segments of American foreign pol-
icy that the totalitarians can proceed to
attack and try to undermine the elected
representatives of the free people of the
United States and the Congress, those
same people had better know it.
There is no doubt what their reaction
will be if they find out that the adminis-
tration of this Government will sit in
silence while a tyrant whom they are
supporting in an unjustifiable military
action, proceeds to attack Members of
the U.S. Senate as traitors simply be-
cause under our system of political free-
dom and constitutional rights, we Sena-
tors exercise the precious checking power
which the Constitution gives to the Sen-
ate against what we consider to be a
mistaken foreign policy and call the hand
of tyrants such as the Premier General
of South Vietnam.
Then, too, perhaps we had better pon-
der again that great letter of Thomas
Jefferson to James Madison in 1787:
I hold it that a little rebellion now and
then is a good thing, and as necessary in the
political world as storms in the physical.
Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally
establish the encroachments on the rights of
the people which have produced them. An
observation of this truth should render hon-
est republican governors so mild in their
punishment of rebellions as not to discour-
age them too much. It is a medicine neces-
sary for the sound health of government.
That great early President of the Unit-
ed States recognized the importance to a
healthy democracy of honest and sincere
dissent in the Halls of this Government.
This Senator from Oregon dissents on
many things, but he can always be
counted upon to fight just as hard in
6581
support of a policy of his Government
when he thinks that policy can be
squared with the facts. I intend to con-
tinue to dissent in regard to the unjusti-
fiable war in South Vietnam.
I do not think it is moral. I do not
think that this war in South Vietnam,
and American support of it, can be
squared with American principles of
ideals and morality. I intend to ex-
press that dissent.-
President Jefferson in his historic
notes on religion in 1776 wrote:
No wonder the oppressed should rebel, and
they will continue to rebel and raise dis-
turbance until their civil rights are fully re-
stored to them and all partial distinctions,
exclusions and incapacitations removed.
That is a fitting transition paragraph
to the second item that I rise to discuss;
namely, title III of the civil rights bills
CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1963
The Senate resumed the consideration
of the bill (H.R. 7152) to enforce the
constitutional right to vote, to confer
jurisdiction upon the district courts of
the United States to provide injunctive
relief against discrimination in public
accommodations, to authorize the At-
torney General to institute suits to pro-
tect constitutional rights in public fa-
cilities and public education, to extend
the Commission on Civil Rights, to pre-
vent discrimination in federally assisted
programs, to establish a Commission on
Equal Employment Opportunity, and for
other purposes.
Mr. MORSE. Mr. President, no one
can improve upon the great language
of Thomas Jefferson in his historic notes.
And I read the language again:
No wonder the oppressed should rebel,
and they will continue to rebel and raise
disturbance until their civil rights are fully
restored to them and all partial distinctions,
exclusions, and incapacitations removed.
That is the heart of the civil rights
fight. That is what the civil rights fight
is all about.
I said the other day-and it is a fitting
introduction as a preface to my remarks
this afternoon-that we must always
square our governmental policy with our
national ideals and our moral profess-
ings. I hold to the point of view that
any time a government or a govern-
mental policy cannot be squared with
what we all know are sound, moral prin-
ciples, that policy must be repudiated
and changed. The great evil in the dis-
crimination against Negroes in this coun-
try ever since the Emancipation Proc-
lamation by reason of our failure to ever
deliver the Constitution to them is dis-
crimination that cannot be squared with
the Golden Rule. ? I shall repeat it again
and again. Those of us who are seeking
to pass a civil rights bill are seeking, to
apply the Golden Rule to the Negroes
of this country.
We are seeking to keep faith with the
principle of religious teaching that runs
through all the religions of the world,
based upon a belief in one God. Bring
to me any of the great religious books
which form the foundation teaching of
all the major religions in the world-the
Torah, the Koran, or the Bible-and I
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CC RESSIONAL RECORD -SENATE
will point out the Golden Mule. It Is the
moral teaching that all mankind
throughout the ages has recognized, to
define the relationship of man to man.
What do we mean when sometimes we
speak of an incident as an illustration
of man's inhumanity to man? When we
analyze such an incident, we find that the
inhumanity existed because the Golden
Rule was violated.
Our great teacher Jefferson ap-
preciated that, for it is Imbedded in the
notes on religion from which I read an
excerpt a moment ago as an introduc-
tion to my speech on civil rights tonight.
Mr. President, when all is said and
done, the 14th amendment merely guar-
antees to the Negroes that we shall do
unto them as we would be done by.
That is the spiritual teaching of the
14th amendment; and what a reflection
it Is on the history of this Republic that
it has been denied and ignored, insofar
as the Negroes are concerned, ever since
the 14th amgndment was adopted.
Mr. President, I may disagree with the
President of the United States in regard
to a few things, such as the McNamara
war in South Vietnam; but I agree with
the President on most. things, and I fully
agree with him on his courageous posi-
tion on civil rights. Sometime next
week-or perhaps I shall wait until Me-
morial Day, if this debate is still going
on then :I shall read, word for word,
here on the floor of the Senate, what I
consider the greatest speech on civil
rights ever uttered in this country since
President Lincoln's grreea, Emancipation
Proclamation. I referred to the speech
by the then Vice President of the United
States, now the President of the United
States, Lyndon B. Johnson, at Gettys-
burg, Pa., last Memorial Day. It needs
to be read and read and read, over and
over again, because when that speech is
boiled down to its basic elements, one
finds that it is about the, Golden Rule
the rule of -doing unto others as you
would have them do unto you. That Is
what the great Johnson speech of last
Memorial Day really means.
In that speech he made perfectly clear
that we must deliver the Constitution of
the United States to the Negroes of this
country, because, as Jefferson forewarned
in the statement of his .Which I read a
few moments ago, when these precious
moral rights are denied to minorities, one
must expect a reaction of rebellion, or at
least of civil disturbance.
I believe that today there confronts
the American people on the domestic
scene the most serious domestic crisis
since 1862, for I believe there are tens
upon tens upon tens of thousands of
Negroes-not all of them young, but the
great majority of them young-who have
become Imbued with the spirit of mar-
tyrdom. We should reflect on what his-
tory teaches about martyrdom; we
should examine those pages of the his-
tory books and should read of the epi-
sodes . which caused great numbers of
martyrs to lay down their lives. We have
failed too long to deliver the Constitution
of the United States to the Negroes of
America; and this may be our last op-
portunity to deliver it to them without
the flowing of great quantities of human
blood, for I believe that the martyrs, or
those who are holding the attitude of
martyrs,_ among the coloredpopulation
of this country are not going to wait any
longer; they are ready to die for their
constitutional rights; but, they will not
die alone. So I think that today the
Senate has an obligation as solemn and
as great as that which any Senate since
1862 has had.
All of us can recognize the host of com-
plex problems that the belated deliver-
ance of the Constitution of the United
States to the Negroes will create in the
next few years. I do not believe the
delivery of the Constitution to the
Negroes of America will result In im-
mediate tranquillity throughout the Na-
tion. Of course, it will not; but the al-
ternative would be so much more serious
and costly to our Republic that we must
not think of any proposal to give the
Negroes of this country anything less
than their full constitutional rights.
Today, all the newspapers publish ar-
ticles which include statements in re-
sponse to the questions, ``To what ex-
tent do you think the bill will be watered
down? To what extent do you think
compromises will be substituted for full
deliverance of the Constitution?"
I say to the Members of the Senate
that if they vote for the slightest water-
ing down of the full constitutional rights
of the Negroes of this country, such
Senators will perform a great disservice
to the Nation, and will have to assume
their full share of the responsibility for
the disturbances that will flow from a
failure to give the Constitution in full
to the Negroes of America.
Of course, Mr. President, all of us will
have to make adjustments; but if we
talk to the great Negro statesmen of the
country, we find that they are well aware
of the fact that there are many prob-
lems of a social, economic and political
nature that will arise in tie next 10 or
20 years after the Constitution is de-
livered in 1964 to the Negroes of Ameri-
ca. But that situation is a challenge to
all of us to perform as citizen-states-
men; it is a challenge to all of us to rec-
ognize that, when all is said and done, all
of our rights and liberties are, in the last
analysis, dependent upon our keeping
faith with the controlling principle of
our system of self-government namely,
that ours is a government of laws, and
that the laws must prevail.
It is neither easy nor pleasant to allude
to what I consider to be the dangers
involved in a failure to deliver the Con-
stitution of the United States to the Ne-
groes of America, for I still know that
when one makes the statements I have
made in the past 15 minutes on the
floor of the Senate, those who wish to
distort, misrepresent, and read inten-
tions, meanings and implications into
one's words that are not 'in fact there,
one can be put In a light, in the eyes of
some, that will cause him to be misun-
derstood. But we shall not serve our
country well by runing away from the
ugly realities that are involved in this
great problem and being unwilling to
discuss them out in the open.
We hear a great deal of discussion in
the cloakrooms of what I have been say-
April 2
ing on the floor of the Senate for the
past 15 minutes. I have never been able
to understand politicians who apparent-
ly feel that It Is all right to discuss in
the cloakrooms, problems involving the
welfare of our people that are very ugly,
frightening, disturbing and involving hu-
man relationships, but are unwilling to
face them on the floor of the Senate,
where they have an opportunity really to
Inform the American people of what they,
as legislators, believe are really basic
problems confronting us on the civil
rights bill.
We cannot give consideration to what
has been happening In Florida in the
last couple of days without realizing
that what I predict is true as to what
will happen if we in the Senate try to
duck passage of a bill that would give
full deliverance of the Constitution to
the Negroes. The warnings of Jefferson
will be put into practice in the case of
an aroused people who believe that
wrongs are being done to them.
How much longer do Senators believe
we can continue to use on the bodies of
human beings hot shots that are ordi-
narily used on the bodies of cattle to
help in loading them into trucks and
corrals?
How much longer do Senators believe
we can continue in various parts of the
country to use police dogs on human
beings who are exercising the precious
tenet of Jefferson-the right to rebel
when they think that tyranny has been
substituted for freedom?
How much longer do Senators believe
we can continue in our country using
police brutality against Negroes when
they demonstrate for the constitutional
rights to which they are entitled as a
matter of law, but which the Congress
of the United States has never had the
courage to guarantee to them by legisla-
tive implementation of the Constitution?
Now much longer do Senators believe
that that can go on without the blood-
letting to which I earlier referred? I do
not believe any longer. We have had It.
Time is upon us. There is no time left.
We shall either do it in the present ses-
sion of the Congress or we must pre-
pare for domestic disturbances that will
shock not only the country, but the
world.
-We cannot set up in the United States
a "Union of South Africa." The apart-
heid policy of the Union of South Africa
no longer has a place in the 'United
States. We have had it for too long.
Mr. President, I believe I have demon-
strated over the years in my discussion
of civil rights that I do not believe the
civil rights problems Is a problem of the
Southern States alone. The civil rights
problem Is a problem of every State in
the Republic.
Senators ought to read some of the
mail that I have received from my own
State. I am glad to say that I am satis-
fled that it represents a minority of pub-
lic opinion. But even to have that mi-
nority of public opinion on the propo-
sition of abdicating the denial of con-
stitutional rights to the Negroes of our
country grieves me. I find it difficult to
understand.
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